By Jon Pattee
Senior English Editor - Albawaba.com
Even as the US military buildup in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks gathers steam abroad, a peace movement appears to be developing at home. Across America, campus groups, religious leaders and activist organizations have begun to buck the widely-held opinion that war can effectively deal with the problem of terrorism.
American student groups in particular seem to be mobilizing for the budding movement, with one pro-peace website listing contacts on around 150 campuses nationwide.
One of those involved in organizing student opposition to the brewing war is Natalie Fasnacht, a second year race studies graduate student at the University of California at Davis.
As the media and outreach coordinator for the Students Transforming and Resisting Corporations (STARC) Alliance, a national, student-run social justice organization, she has been joining forces with other peace activists who are “trying to find the most humane, just and peaceful way to handle this attack, and to prevent a downward spiral of violence.”
In an interview with Albawaba.com on Sunday, Fasnacht described the diversity and strengths of the developing peace movement, which she said embraced “religious, labor, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, student, youth, social justice, peace, environmental and many other types of organizations.”
Fasnacht added that STARC, which focuses on specific economic, educational and anti-racist issues such as socially responsible investing, fair trade globalization issues, was now developing a radical education program to study the causes of terrorism.
Following are excerpts from the interview:
Q. What was your initial reaction to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and did your feelings seem to be shared by the most of your fellow students?
A. Overall shock was definitely the first response. A number of my friends were concerned about the lives and safety of people they knew in New York, and it took some time to process what exactly had happened and what the repercussions were going to be. There was definitely an overall sense of grief for those who were killed and some fear of what would happen next.
Q. As time has passed, do you think those feelings have changed or evolved? If so, in what way?
A. Among the students I was working with, the initial response to this grief and fear was to organize, get in touch with what others were thinking and feeling, try to find something we could do that would be constructive and helpful.
The activities that developed out of this organizing were a definite response to our fear that racial scapegoating or violence was going to result, either from individual Americans or from our government, before emotions had calmed enough to come up with a clear, rational plan of action.
Q. At what point did people on your campus start to talk about organizing a response to Bush's massive military mobilization, and his call for a "war on terrorism"? What has your role been?
A. There was an immediate mobilization of students across the country as soon as we heard a declaration of war. Some students at Wesleyan College in Connecticut were the first to send out a call for a National Day of Action for Peaceful Justice to be held on September 20. One of these students was a part of STARC with me, so STARC helped spread the word about the Day of Action.
As the media coordinator, I was a part of a committee that discussed the message we were trying to communicate. Our ultimate goal at that point was to try to elbow some space within mainstream media to have a dialogue about what other options we had besides retaliatory violence or racial profiling.
Q. How diverse are the viewpoints represented in this movement?
Given that there are thousands of people involved in this movement, which is growing every day, the diversity is very large.
The array of people who have been mobilized within the US is vast: there are religious, labor, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, student, youth, social justice, peace, environmental and many other types of organizations involved in trying to find the most humane, just and peaceful way to handle this attack, and to prevent a downward spiral of violence.
Q. If you had to sum up what the common ground that unites you is, what would it be?
A. A desire to find an effective, clear-headed, long term solution to terrorism without sacrificing more innocent people in any country around the world.
Q. What kind of activities have you been organizing in response to the developing war?
Students across the country are organizing teach-ins to learn more about Afghanistan, Islam, the Middle East, US imperialism, and all the possible causes of terrorism. There have been vigils for those who have died, peace protests, petitions, demands to senators to prevent retaliatory violence and various other activities to raise the general consciousness level and work to prevent any more deaths.
Q. What has the response been from students who seem to be undecided about the wisdom of the new war? Do other students seem to be heading toward a more pro- or anti- war stance?
A. There are a large number of students who believe the war is the best and only way to handle this solution. Within the US there is a shocking amount of ignorance about the way other countries see the United States and how the
US has treated other countries. There is a general lack of understanding about how anyone could not think the US is the best country on earth.
It is this ethnocentrism that we are trying to eliminate, but there is a large amount of support for what President Bush is doing.
Q. Does the work you are doing include efforts to create more understanding between the student body and Muslim and Arab Americans, or foreign students?
A. Absolutely. Along with the teach-ins, many campuses are setting up safe spaces and escort services to try to ensure the safety of Arab and Muslim-Americans on campuses. We also strive to remember the mistakes we made in the past when we imprisoned Japanese-Americans during World War II and make sure that does not happen again.
And most importantly, we want to grieve and remember the Arab and Muslim Americans who were killed in the attacks, and never forget that we are all in this together.
Q. What do you hope for, as you see this student movement developing?
A. Students in the US have historically had a very strong voice in peace movements. Because the US is such a militaristic country, students have often played the role of the nation's conscience and we are once again taking on that role.
Ultimately, we hope to remind our leaders of what this country's ideals are, and that we need to make new decisions which respect the autonomy and sovereignty of other nations, in such a way that we build positive relationships which lead to economic, political and social justice where terrorism has no room to grow.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
